After expanding the NFL’s regular season from 16 games to 17 in 2021, it seems to be just a matter of time before they add an 18th game. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell gave the first hint of this at the 2024 NFL Draft when he appeared on the Pat McAfee Show and hinted at continuing to expand the schedule.
He outlined the possibility of reducing the preseason to two games to keep the total number of games the same. He also floated the idea of holding the Super Bowl on President’s Day weekend to allow fans to fully enjoy the Sunday festivities. One high-visibility NFL exec recently offered his thoughts on the matter.
Stephen Jones, the son of Jerry Jones, is part of one of the most famous ownership families in the NFL. As a co-owner, he also serves as the Dallas Cowboys’ CEO and director of player personnel. He is on the NFL’s competition committee, which reviews all competitive aspects of the game, including (but not limited to) player protection.
Jones appeared on The Athletic’s new podcast, Scoop City, and gave his opinion on the idea of an 18-game season.
“I’m on the competition committee. We’ve talked about this knowing that it’s probably inevitable,” Jones said of an 18-game season in a clip of the podcast posted by Chase Daniel on X. “At the end of the day, the players enjoy the compensation that’s coming their way, and they get, for the most part, half of every revenue dollar that comes through the door. Certainly, getting paid well, we all know when we go to 18 games, the revenue’s gonna jump and should only help in terms of the money available to pay players.”
He also mentioned the challenges that could arise when managing a 53-man roster throughout the season. The increase in games will increase the rigor of the athletes’ bodies. Many have assumed that an 18-game schedule would also include a second bye week, but that is speculation up to this point.
“There’s gonna be some strategy in terms of taking care of your players, in terms of how you manage through your full 53-man roster,” Jones said. “No one wants to protect our players and have ’em up and healthy [more] than the National Football League and the 32 individual teams…At the end of the day, you want your best players up and healthy, playing for championships.”
Jones’ comments were interesting, to say the least. He acknowledged that an additional game would create challenges with managing the health of a 53-man roster while also selling it as an inevitability that benefits players via compensation. However, at some point, the expansion of the schedule will reach a breaking point.
There is a reason that the NFL has the fewest games per season of the major sports. The game is extremely rigorous on the body. By the end of most seasons, nearly every player is dealing with some form of bumps and bruises. As players get bigger and faster, the risk of injury only increases. Another game’s worth of snaps puts them at further risk. The extra money is nice, but the top echelon of players are disproportionately seeing the benefit of increased revenue. The majority of the league, and therefore the union, comprises low-level rookie contracts and veteran benefit deals.
And certainly, a good portion of the high-paid players have spoken out against an extra regular season game. ESPN’s Brooke Pryor put out an article last month that detailed some of the player responses to a possible 18th regular season game. The cohort surveyed and voted in favor of 18 games was 54 percent of the league, but 46 percent were with stipulations. Whether it be extra pay, extra rest, or possibly off-season changes, the players aren’t going to give up an extra game for nothing in return.
Just 19 percent were completely against the expansion. Steelers S DeShon Elliott was among those.
Fortunately, there is no pressing deadline to make this change. The latest CBA won’t expire until March 2031, so there is plenty of time to figure out a middle ground. If both sides find a reason to act sooner, they could conceivably renegotiate earlier than 2031.
